In recent years, the domestic, commercial and industrial power consumption, in many countries, particularly at hours of peak power consumption, has been growing at a seemingly ever increasing rate. Since electric power utility companies are obligated to furnish power demand at the level required even if such power consumption levels occur infrequently for only a few hours a day, the generating power capacity of the electric utility companies must be such as to provide power at the required power level whenever called upon. Normally, and particularly in many countries in the summer time, hours of peak power consumption occur during the day with consumption levels falling to their so-called "off-peak" levels during the night.
Since the peak power demands on the electric utility companies occur only for relatively short periods of time, the electric utility conventionally operates generating plants having minimal costs and reasonably low operating costs, for example coal burning plants to supply the base load and intermediate load of customers connected to the electric grid with more expensive operating plants such as gas turbines being quickly brought onto line to furnish power during the short periods of peak demand. Consequently, the cost of peak power is normally several times larger than the cost of what is called baseload or "off-peak" power.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved method of and apparatus for producing electrical power during periods of peak power demand wherein the disadvantages as outlined including and related to the relatively large costs are reduced or substantially overcome.